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Vintage Video - Mirror, Mirror (1990) A Reflective Image of Hell

Haunted houses have been the antagonists in a slew of horror films, most notably The Amityville Horror and House to name a couple, but household items such as the traditional, supernatural mirror, as in 1990’s Mirror, Mirror, has been implemented as the mischievous culprit into the genre.

Mirror, Mirror opens with a tragic incident that manifests an antique, hell-infested mirror and the evil powers it has over any one who inhabits the bedroom it dwells in. But as misfit Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest) and her over-dramatic, psychologically unstable mother Susan (Karen Black) move into the home of the infamous mirror, strange occurrences start connecting with Megan and those around her.



As Megan befriends classmate Nikki (Kristin Datillo), who is running for class predent against the popular, but conceded Charleen, Megan takes her sadistic, evil powers from the mirror to put Charleen and her friends through some unfortunate, and eventually fatal, events.

Even with bigger names, such as Black and Yvonne De Carlo making a cameo appearance, it doesn’t save the typical and somewhat tacky plotline that the film possesses. Despite no suspense building, a lack of decent effects and uncharismatic acting, Mirror, Mirror doesn’t come off as a terrible film as a handful of death sequences, such as the scalding steam shower and Black’s bloodbath scene involving her hand in a garbage disposal, lifts the film from being a dreary, overlong (with a duration of approximately 100 minutes), mind-numbing experience.

As Mirror, Mirror eventually turned into a franchise including three sequels, this initial installment, directed and co-written by first-time director Marina Sargenti, actually plays out as a Hollywood blockbuster hit compared to its followers.